David Schiff ’67

David Schiff ’67 knew he wanted to be a com- poser the moment he heard Aaron Copland’s “Billy the Kid” ballet in music theory class at the Bronx House School for Performing Arts.

Not yet a teenager, he had been playing piano since age 4. And as the booming timpani, swooping strings and bouncing brass painted a sonic picture of the infamous outlaw’s life, Schiff was hooked.

“I liked to perform for just myself, and playing piano was how I did that,” he said. “But when I heard ‘Billy the Kid,’ I just knew that this was it.”

Today, Schiff is a prolific composer with more than 70 published and performed compositions, from symphonies to concertos to operas. As a professor at Reed College in Oregon until 2019, he also helped coax young musicians out of their shells.

“I took on the students who were late bloomers,” he says. “You can’t just teach to the one or two students who have a musical sense already –– you have to teach to the entire class.”

Schiff remembers his own College experience as one filled with music and friends. He arrived on campus not long after the formation of the Group for Contemporary Music, and recalls listening to them in what is now Miller Theatre. But his tastes went far beyond classical.

“I loved going to jazz performances, and we were all really into Motown,” Schiff says. “I saw Dionne Warwick perform –– that was really something.”

Even after retiring from Reed, Schiff has continued to compose and premiere new work. He collaborated with the Eugene Symphony to write a piece based on the life of running legend Steve Prefontaine for the 2022 World Athletics Championships. And his newest piano concerto, “Uptown/Downtown,” is inspired by memories of Harlem and nights at famed jazz institution Village Vanguard.

“I like to write from my own memory, my own experience of being in a particular place,” Schiff says. “I try to capture that emotion and those feelings in my music.”

— Emily Driehaus